7 Surprising Facts About Running

 

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of running here at Health. Running burns calories, builds muscle, busts stress, and boosts your heart health. Plus, it’s super convenient—just grab a pair of sneakers and go!

In honor of National Running Day, here are some interesting tidbits about running and racing.

Runners are getting adventurous…and dirty
Last year, more people completed obstacle races and mud runs than marathons and half-marathons. These non-traditional races had an estimated 4 million finishers in 2013. (But the 5K is still the most popular race distance, with more than 6.2 million finishers in 2012, says Running USA.)

Your boobs move way more than you think
Researchers from the University of Portsmouth in England have found that breasts don’t just bounce up and down during running; they also move side to side and in and out, creating a complicated figure-8 pattern. This so-called breast displacement could permanently damage the Coopers ligaments and lead to premature sagging. That’s why it’s super important to have supportive sports bras that minimize bouncing as much as possible, but are comfortable enough that you don’t hate to wear them.

You’re fastest in your 20s
Over the marathon distance, at least. Spanish researchers looked at the ages and finishing times of runners in the 2010 and 2011 New York City Marathon and found that men run their fastest marathon at age 27; women at 29. Times were 4% slower for every year younger than these ages, and 2% slower for each year thereafter. Meaning an 18-year-old marathoner runs about as fast as a 60-year-old finisher.

…but people run long distances well into their 90s
The oldest person to run a marathon is Fauja Singh, who at 101 completed the 2012 London Marathon in 7:49:21. The oldest female marathon finisher on record is Gladys Burrill, who at age 92 ran the 2010 Honolulu Marathon in 9:53:16, according to Runner’s World.

Running burns lots of calories
The old saw that running torches about 100 calories per mile is a good benchmark, but calorie burn really depends on weight, and your pace and fitness level also come into play. A good formula is to multiply your weight in pounds by 0.63, then multiply by the number of miles. The number you get is the amount of calories you burned over and above the basal metabolic rate (calories you burn just sitting around). If a 150-pound woman runs 6 miles, she’ll burn about 567 calories. But as you get fitter, running the same number of miles won’t burn as many calories. Then it’s time to go faster—or longer.

Running can be a job requirement
The Army’s Basic Training Physical Fitness Test has three parts: push-ups, sit-ups, and a two mile run. Check out the minimum times to pass the running portion, below. You have to run even faster as a soldier to meet the requirements for the twice-annual Army Fitness Test, or to pass Advanced Infantry Training.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women rule the roads
Women made up 56% of all 15.5 million race finishers in 2012, according to Running USA. The half-marathon distance has the biggest female presence with a whopping 61/39 gender split. In fact, the marathon is the only event where men have women beat in terms of sign-ups.

MORE:
13 Super-Flexible Running Shoes for Women
Fitness Foods to Help You Get in Shape Faster
7 Tips for Running Your First Race

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vigorous Exercise May Help Prevent “Silent” Strokes

By Matt McMillen

WEDNESDAY, June 8, 2011 (Health.com) — Small strokes that cause no outward symptoms yet have potentially serious long-term consequences may be kept at bay by vigorous exercise such as jogging and cycling, a new study in the journal Neurology suggests.

Walking and other light exercise, by contrast, appears to offer no protection against these so-called silent strokes, which cause small brain lesions and have been linked to an increased risk of falling, memory problems, dementia, and full-blown strokes.

“The more reasons we can tell our geriatric patients to exercise, the better,” says the lead author of the study, Joshua Z. Willey, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, in New York City. “Not only does [exercise] prevent stroke and heart disease, it also prevents these markers that are linked to other diseases, including dementia, and overall mortality.”

The study included 1,238 men and women in northern Manhattan who are part of a larger, ongoing study of stroke risk factors funded by the federal government. The participants ranged in age from about 60 to 80 and had no known history of stroke. Just under two-thirds were Hispanic, and the remainder were roughly evenly split between blacks and whites.

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Each of the participants answered survey questions about their exercise habits, including which activities they took part in, how often, and for how long. Forty-three percent of the participants did not exercise at all; 36% engaged in light workouts such as walking, playing golf, or bowling; and 21% reported getting regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise from bicycling, swimming, racquetball, and similarly intense activities.

Roughly six years later, the participants each underwent an MRI to look for signs of silent strokes, also known as subclinical brain infarcts. Roughly 1 in 6 had lesions consistent with silent stroke.

The odds of having a silent stroke were 40% lower in the heavy exercise group than in the sedentary group. However, the light exercisers were just as likely to have lesions as those who did not exercise at all, even when the researchers took other risk factors (such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and diabetes) into account.

This doesn’t mean that low-intensity exercise has no value. As Dr. Willey and his coauthors are quick to point out, light physical activity has other health benefits. It’s also possible that, with a larger study population, they might have found a subtle yet measurable relationship between low-intensity exercise and a lower risk of silent stroke.

“Maybe it was simply that they could not measure a difference,” says Helmi Lutsep, MD, a stroke expert and vice chair of neurology at Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland.

But the findings do echo similar research on exercise and (non-silent) strokes. Previous studies, including one from Dr. Willey’s team, which includes researchers at Columbia and the University of Miami, have consistently linked vigorous exercise—but not mild exercise—to a lower risk of stroke.

Dr. Lutsep, who was not involved in the study, says that some of her elderly patients have difficulty sticking to a regular regimen of intense exercise. She often advises these people to include short bursts of intense activity in their exercise routine.

“Even if they can’t maintain an intense level of activity, they can often make their exercise a little more vigorous for a short time, for, say, 10 minutes,” she says.

One of the study findings surprised Dr. Willey: Uninsured participants, as well as those with Medicaid, saw no reduction in silent-stroke risk no matter how vigorously they exercised. While he’s unable to explain why, he suspects that it’s because those participants have underlying medical problems that are not being adequately treated.

Dr. Lutsep agrees. “If we have a patient who is uninsured, it’s likely he’s not taking blood-pressure medications that help prevent strokes,” she says. “The risks are magnified.”

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